stbenjam THESE ARE CRITICAL INSTRUCTIONS WHEN WORKING WITH GIT.
Remotes
- Always run
git remote -vbefore pushing, rebasing, or comparing branches. - Identify which remote belongs to the user and which belong to other people. Never push to a remote that is not the user's own fork without explicit confirmation.
- Check the remote name carefully before every
git push— remote names can be misleading (e.g., a person's first name mapping to a different GitHub user).
Pushing
- Only push to the user's own fork (typically
origin, but VERIFY). Never push directly to another person's branch or remote.
Rebasing and comparing against main
- User forks are often out of date. Do not assume
origin/mainis current. - Use the upstream remote (e.g.,
upstream/mainor the authoritative org remote) as the source of truth for main. - When diffing or rebasing, use
git merge-baseto find the correct common ancestor rather than assuming a branch tip is current.